At 96, Denis Brihat, pioneer of film photography, exhibits at the Galerie Ombres Blanches in Toulouse

These are the works of a 96-year-old photographer that can still be seen until October 23 at the Galerie Ombres Blanches, rue Mirepoix in Toulouse. Denis Brihat is obviously not unknown in the Toulouse photographic world. Friend of Jean Dieuzaide, whom he exhibited at the Château d’Eau in 1980, he began his career in Paris, then retired, like a hermit, from 1958, to the heights of Bonnieux in the Luberon. Adopting a total asceticism with no other access to water than that of the well, he adhered to the quintessence of photography, film, most often in black and white, and often shot in the camera, exploring relentlessly nature in all its facets.

Rosehip, cherry tree branches in the fall or small honeysuckle are for example the titles he gave to his works but there are also truffle cups or sprouted onions, large compositions often on a white background. The artist summarizes the spirit of his work with a phrase from William Blake (1757-1827): “See the world in a grain of sand and paradise in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of the hand and eternity in an hour.” At the same time, he organized photography courses and lecture and teaching cycles by bringing his renowned photographer friends. Jean Dieuzaide, who met him for the first time in 1958, already installed in his lair, described him as follows: “Our man, bare-chested or with a pipe in his mouth, was also building, trowel in hand, his future laboratory in the middle of olive trees and holm oaks, in a space as small as a pocket handkerchief, but immense in freedom. There was a well to wash the photos and prepare the friends’ pastis.

This exhibition is completed in the meeting area of ​​the bookstore, rue Mirepoix, by a different work by the photographer on India where he spent an entire year in 1955. These photographs earned him, then a young photographer, the Niepce prize after that it had been awarded to Robert Doisneau and Jean Dieuzaide.